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Shiites, Sunnis jockeying as constitution deadline looms

Another Marine killed

Posted: Friday, August 12, 2005

By Antonio CastanedaAssociated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A Shiite leader on Thursday threw his support behind a federal system of government that would create a Shiite south and a Kurdish north, but Sunni Arabs warned the move could postpone completion of a new constitution with a deadline only four days away.

Also Thursday, the military said a U.S. Marine assigned to the 2nd Marine Division was killed in a roadside bombing the night before in the western city of Ramadi.

Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, a Shiite Muslim who heads of Iraq's biggest political party, said the constitution should endorse regional governments to "keep political balance in country," apparently a gesture toward Kurdish demands to have the government take on a federal shape.

Sunni Arab leaders fear the stance could split their territories from oil-rich areas that are heavily populated by Kurds and Shiites.

"We were surprised with Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim's declarations today," said Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni member of the committee that is drafting the constitution. "Time is running out and such declarations should be much more calm. We don't have time for such maneuvers."

The new constitution is supposed to be approved by parliament by Monday and put before voters in an Oct. 15 referendum.

Insurgent attacks have continued during the weeks-long effort by leaders from Iraq's disparate groups to draft the charter.

More than 40 U.S. soldiers have been killed this month, most of them due to bombings, but a U.S. commander said Thursday that suicide attacks and car bombings have decreased in effectiveness the past few months.

"Less than 25 percent of those attacks have been effective and have resulted in a casualty - effective meaning resulted in a casualty, either a coalition force casualty, an Iraqi security forces casualty and Iraqi civilian casualty," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, deputy chief of staff for Multinational Forces in Iraq.

The slain Marine, whose name was not released, was injured in a bombing Wednesday night in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, and died later of his wounds, the military said.

At least 1,842 members of the U.S. military have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

U.S. and Iraqi officials hope political progress will deflate support for the insurgency.

Al-Hakim, a Shiite Muslim who heads of Iraq's biggest political party, urged leaders not to miss their opportunity to write a unifying document for the fractured country.

"We should not let this chance of accomplishing this goal to go away," al-Hakim said in a speech in the holy city of Najaf marking the death of his brother, a prominent Shiite cleric who was assassinated in 2002. "It is a sacred aim and there should be constitutional guarantees to accomplish that."

Al-Hakim spoke one day after meeting with Iraq's most important Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. Al-Sistani, who wields enormous influence in the country's Shiite majority, also met separately with radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

A major obstacle to agreement has been the Kurds' demand that Iraq be transformed into a federal state as a way to protect their self-rule in three northern provinces. Sunni Arabs oppose that, fearing Kurds want to declare independence. Shiites are divided, with factions supporting federalism wanting to build a Shiite region in the south.

Al-Hakim backed the idea, which also would create a Shiite south.

He also addressed another controversial issue, saying "Islam must be the official religion and will not allow anything that contradicts Islamic law."

Al-Mutlaq said the statement about federalism threatened recent progress made in negotiations with Kurdish leaders. Kurds have largely governed themselves since 1991 and insist on a continuation of regional autonomy.

A spokesman for al-Hakim added that the senior cleric supports the continued presence of militias in the country, another provision that Sunni Arabs reject.

"We support the peshmerga's existence, and we believe that the others also have the right to use their militias," said spokesman Ridha Jawad Taqqi, referring to Kurdish militias. Al-Hakim's party maintains its own militia, the Badr Brigade, although the party maintains the group is now a political movement without weapons.

Shiite leaders have long insisted on the provisions, but al-Hakim did not detail how these principles should be included in the country's constitution.

Gunmen killed at least six other people Thursday in attacks across Iraq, including one that left a young girl wounded and her parents dead.

In the overnight attack that orphaned the 12-year-old girl, gunmen killed her mother and father, a pharmacist, in west Baghdad, police said. The girl was lightly injured and released to relatives, Dr. Muhannad Jawad of Yarmouk Hospital said. It was not known why the family was targeted.

Three Iraqi soldiers were killed and one officer kidnapped in separate attacks across the country. In one attack, gunmen burst into the home of an intelligence official from the Defense Ministry and killed him as he was preparing for work in Basra, 340 miles southeast of Baghdad, police Capt. Mushtaq Kadhim said.

A civilian walking to a Shiite mosque in Baghdad for afternoon prayers was killed by gunmen, police Capt. Talib Thamir said. Insurgents have repeatedly tried to incite sectarian violence by targeting rival sects.

U.S. troops searched through homes and farmland south of Beiji, police said, in an area where four U.S. soldiers were killed Tuesday.